Musket Ball - Resources

At first glance, this object—a smooth, solid lead sphere less than an inch in diameter—seems noteworthy only for its simplicity. It is a musket ball, the ammunition used during the colonial wars and the War of Independence in the 18th century. The unassuming solid-lead musket ball bears little resemblance to its modern successors: contemporary ammunition must be precisely manufactured in factories to exacting specifications, while the 18th-century musket ball was so simple it could be hand-cast around a campfire using a basic mold. But there is more to the musket ball than first appears. Indeed, its design—and its limitations—had a great deal of influence on the way that Americans organized their defenses during the colonial period and waged their war for political independence against the British.